contracting abroad

[jhorsfield30]

I need help,

I have done some contracting within the UK

How does contracting abroad differ in terms of recruitment and the way agencies deal with you.

Anyone here have experience of contracting abroad, I would like your advice..

[Rebecca Loos]

I have experience in contracting in NZ, it's pretty much the same as here except you don't need to create a company as such (just register with the GST dept of the IRD). Agencies are similar to here, and so are the contracts wordings. Obviously there's no IR35-type issues.

[ASB]

Obviously there's no IR35-type issues.

Depends.....

If you remain UK resident - which you will for some time even if you are resident in another country - then IR35 doesn't necessarily simply go away.

It will depend to a certain extent on how the billing etc is done - but don't forget UK residents are [normally] accountable to tax based on their world wide income. Obviously the provisions of the double taxation agreement between UK and whereever is also relevant.

I bill clients in parts of the rest of Europe, and via my Ltd company. This is potentially subject to IR35. It's also subject to withholding taxes in some jurisdictions - but then these are credited against UK CT

[t0bytoo]

I work in New York in much the same way as I would in London. I do have permanent residency, so no issues with being legal.

Agencies are still scumbags, perhaps more so, as their tricky ways are that much mroe transparent. Most of the job action happens on dice.com as opposed to jobserve.

I dealt with two different agents in the last few months, and things were a little different.

Agent 1: Went downtown to their office before interviewing at the client site. After contract and rate was agreed upon, agent supplied a checklist of paperwork: corporate filing stuff, tax id, bank details, state id, social security number etc and professional liability insurance, which i paid 600 bux for.

(to get liability insurance, i had to have property insurance, and as my company is registered at a mailbox in the local laundromat, i effectively paid for fire and contents insurance on the laundromat. the insurance people asked me to describe the security system. "erm. there's an old korean man who speaks a little english..)

Agent 2: Got a call, went to interview at the client site, signed the papers. All he wanted to know was the company name and address. So I could just as easily not be legal to work in the US, and processed payment through an overseas company.

Funnily enough, just saw Agent 2 downstairs with a group of new contractors. All from India.

I think Agent 1 is the most typical, whilc Agent 2 is an old school cowboy.